Anti-Hero
by Winged PC of Ra
Summary: Words and emotions are such trivial things, yet they make humans human. Do Irkens possess feelings? If so, are they considered 'human?
1. Introduction

If there are two trivial items in this world, they're words and emotions.

Words are trivial because they improperly phrase things. You could travel all across the world, speak every language and live a thousand lifetimes, yet never find the right way to communicate something.

Emotions are trivial because they categorize the human heart. The metaphorical heart is not something which can be described through test tubes and computer files, much less through thick-minded words like 'love' and 'hate'. Feelings are different than emotions. Emotions are their broader, less-detailed categories, while feelings are intricate and at their best when shown through actions.

Feelings are human.

Feelings are what make humans, human.

Do Irkens have feelings? Aside from pride, devotion, loyalty, and other emotions one would associate with a society focused entirely on militarism and conquest? I'm not sure. They're not human.

It's been about five years since I've known for sure that there was life on other planets, and that I'm not crazy. Until then, people would relentlessly mock me for my studies and countless discoveries, calling me insane and recommending therapists, and I'd almost believe them. For a while, I hid how badly their reactions affected my thinking.

'I know I saw something strange', 'I'll find out and stop it so I can protect everyone'. Those thoughts would run through my mind often, when I was younger and didn't take what everyone said seriously.

I wanted to be the hero.

'Did I really see something, or am I just crazy?', 'I'll find out and stop it so I can prove everyone wrong'. Those thoughts replaced my previous ones. I grew older and craved to cease the incessant insults and shame which constantly played in my mind like a CD stuck on repeat.

I wanted to see the looks on their faces, _all of their faces_, when they found out that I was right all along and they were stupid for not realizing the truth sooner.

I became an anti-hero.

Until that day, that fatal day.

"_Hello, friends. I am a perfectly normal human worm-baby. You have nothing, absolutely nothing, to fear from me. Just pay no attention to me and we'll get along just fine."_

_Zim._

The alien who I loathed and despised, but actually felt thankful for.

_He gave me a reason to believe in myself, again._

It was obvious, so blatantly obvious, that Zim was an alien. His pasty green skin, his horribly-fake black wig clasped sloppily onto his bald scalp hiding his antennas, the fact that he has _no ears, nose, or thumbs_, the signs were all there that he wasn't from this world.

And yet he had everyone fooled, and everyone was convinced that I was the fool, when it was actually the other way around.

I never felt more alive than I did when we first met, the small spark present at the sight of a possible discovery _igniting_ at the mere sight of him! Our games of cat and mouse were dynamic and enthralling, never being able to tell who the predator was and who was the prey considering how often the tables would turn.

The only downside regarding our battles, was how…limited Zim was.

While he was very smart, his intelligence was dulled because of his pride and ego. He easily overlooked seemingly miniscule complications in his schemes, only to be surprised at how massive those little gaps in the plot could be. Even though I should have been grateful that the Irken Invader 'assigned' to taking over Earth was a complete and total _moron_, I couldn't help but yearn for a more challenging opponent, that way my victories wouldn't feel like taking candy from a baby.

"_The great thing about your people, Dib, is that most of them don't notice. All they see is another faceless corporate venture, not a plan for world conquest."_

_Until her._

_Tak, 'the hideous new girl'._

(Author's Note: That's it for that first introduction chapter. Sorry if I made Dib too OC, if I made it unclear that this was his narration, or if I made it entirely inaccurate. I'll try uploading another chapter soon.)


	2. Paper Passing

She had only been around for a couple of days, but she stood out in my mind more than people I had known for years. She listened to me. For those few days we knew each other, I felt happy.

_"Tak! She's Irken and she's after my job and your planet." Zim declared, the idea surprising me greatly._

_This had to be some kind of mistake. Perhaps he was lying to get me against her? While Tak was strange and hated Zim, that's why we bonded, right? She couldn't be an alien, or was I being as oblivious as everyone else?_

_"Oh, come on. I like Tak! And she hates you!" I began, a smirk etching itself onto my expression when recalling the numerous times she hurt Zim without hesitation. "You're just jealous of-"_

_"This has nothing to do with jelly!" He interrupted, catching me off guard for a second due to his idiocy. "I've been trying to figure out her plan, but it's been difficult. She's good! Not good like me, but still good."_

_"This is stupid…" I continued in annoyance, wondering how long he'd continue this lie of Tak being an alien, before seeing him remove some photos from…wherever._

_" Forty-eight hours of trailing Tak and all I could come up with are these photos I wrestled off that ham demon. They're of a GIANT, EVIL WEENIE STAND her father has constructed... But that's nothing." Zim mentioned as I took the photos and began observing them._

_"Hmm. Giant weenie stand is weird," I contemplated. "But it doesn't say anything about Tak. Giant weenie stand... that's worth a look."_

_"I knew this was a bad idea. She'll destroy your world!" He exclaimed, probably angry at how I wouldn't gullibly follow along with his lie._

_"I can't believe you're even saying this!" I yelled in response, unwilling to accept the fact that the only person who had listened and understood what I had spent months trying to prove, was an Irken like Zim._

Similar to the insults and shame that I was plagued by, I hid how badly his conclusion affected my thinking. I craved to stop whatever Zim was going to do, to prove that he was an alien, that I was right and that Tak was human.

But like a lot of my plans during that time in my life, it backfired on me.

_I pulled out my video camera and began looking around the gigantic intergalactic interior, hoping to use everything as possible evidence against Zim._

_My stomach twisted into knots and my heart stopped in my chest when catching sight of Tak flying on one of the platforms. "No pictures, please."_

_Crap._

_"Tak? What... um, look, I can explain." I stammered, trying to comprehend the fact that Zim was right, and I was wrong._

_"No need. In a second you won't even remember having seen any of this," She interrupted, a smirk growing on her human face. Why was this happening to me? How could I have been wrong? And for the love of God, why did Zim have to be right?_

_Her amethyst eyes flashed in front of my own, her smirk disappearing when seeing how I remained unaffected by her powers. "Hmm. You must be smarter than the rest of them. Let's see about your sister," She hypothesized, before being sprayed by Gaz with her can of soda._

_"You're behind this?" I interrogated when she finished screaming and wiped herself of the carbonated substance._

_"No, he is!" She expressed, pointing towards her 'father' who was locked up in a containment unit with wieners floating around his frozen form. "Or at least his resources. I only let him out when I need to keep up appearances, kind of like Zim's robot parents, only good."_

_"You can't do this! People will know something's up. I mean, look at this place," I pointed out, motioning to the interplanetary sanctum. "It's enormous!"_

_"The great thing about your people, Dib, is that most of them don't notice. All they see is another faceless corporate venture, not a plan for world conquest." Tak explained, standing across from my form._

_"…Wait, is there really a difference?" I thought out loud._

Now, Tak was definitely an opponent worth fighting against. Cunning, manipulative, radiant even in her Irken form, it was almost disappointing to see her leave (or rather, shoved into the emptiness of space via escape pod).

A sigh escaped from my mouth as I glanced out the window, squirming a bit in an attempt to feel more comfortable in my high skool desk chair. My eye twitched in slight irritation when I felt a paper wad hit my head.

I glanced around to see who had thrown it, my gaze falling on Zim, who wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was staring at me. The most unusual thing was his expression, for it was one of the rare times that he actually looked serious. I unraveled the note, sending him a glare before reading it.

'Tak's returned, filthy human.'

My mind went blank.

In our high skool classroom, I sat in the middle of the row closest to the window, while Zim sits in the back of the row beside mine (originally, the teacher had us sitting close to one another, though she switched us up because of how often we fought).

I scribbled down a quick response ('How do you know this?') on the back of his message, crumpled up the paper and kicked it behind my desk towards his.

'I tested her SIR unit's memory disk inside GIR, recently. My computer registered that Tak's unit is within range of the disk, meaning Tak can't be far behind.'

Yet another one of those rare moments when Zim actually made sense.

'Why are you telling me this?

I used the same method to get him the message, mentally cursing when the paper scraped my cheek roughly.

'Just keep your eye out and tell me if you see her, fleshy-skinned Earth monkey.'

I rolled my eyes after reading his ridiculous attempt at conveying insults, grabbing my backpack when the bell rang a few seconds later and heading out the door.

"Hey, hey, hey, PATHETIC WORM CHILD WITH THE OBNOXIOUSLY LARGE HEAD, ACKNOWLEDGE THE ALL-POWERFUL ZIM!" A loud voice screeched not too far behind. "ALERT ME IF YOU FIND HER!"

I headed home with Gaz, not long after that.

After seeing the credits for 'Mysterious Mysteries' finish, I flipped off the T.V and trudged up the stairs, omitting a tired yawn. I took off my glasses and crawled into bed, my eyelids feeling heavy.

All drowsiness vanished when I heard knocking.

I sat upright, my gaze darting all over the dark room to find the source of the noise, only to see a shadow at my window.

A few theories about what it could be (mainly consisting of old-fashioned vampires, not those shitty Twilight ones, considering old-fashioned vampires require permission before entering a house) ran through my brain automatically before slipping my glasses back on and recognizing the violet eyes peering into my own.

"Let me in." She spoke in barely a whisper.

I let her in.


	3. Proposition

Tak's slim form snuck through my window and landed on my bed with a soft 'thump', her gaze darting around my shadow-clad room to see whether it was safe or not.

Her actions occurred in the blink of an eye, the same amount of time it took for her to pin me to a wall with a gun pressed against my neck. "You shouldn't go about letting strangers into your house, Dib." She hissed into my ear, her purple orbs peering into my bespectacled brown ones.

"You're not going to kill me. If you intended on doing that, you wouldn't have knocked on my window, and you would have done it already. You need me for something." I replied, doing all in my power to keep my expression calm and devoid of fear, noticing alterations in her human appearance to somewhat distract myself.

Nothing about her had really changed since I last saw her (but that was probably because of her hologram), except for her height and the length of her hair, both of which had increased.

A mad fit of laughter escaped from her lips as she slowly removed the gun from my neck. "You're still smarter than the rest of them. That makes this much easier." She resumed after her fit, not even bothering to lower her voice.

"Makes what much easier?" I asked, Tak's smirk (which temporarily graced her features) vanishing and replaced by a more serious expression.

"I have a proposition for you, of course." She announced, her tone making it sound as though the concept was obvious.

I raised an eyebrow. "What kind of proposition?"

Tak crossed her black and lavender striped arms over her chest. "I spent five human years floating through space in my ship's escape pod. All of that time allowed me to think over what went wrong in my previous plan, and I figured it out: You were on Zim's side, last time."

"And for good reason, too. You wanted to replace the Earth's core with snacks!" I reminded the Irken female who shook her head, 'tsk'ing all the while.

"Yet I planned on filling your planet with offerings for my Tallests to make it more valuable through their eyes, while Zim plans on conquering Earth, and quite possibly, destroying Earth." She remarked, causing me to pause.

Tak seemed to have noticed my abrupt silence, for she continued. "I believe a catchphrase here is 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? That applies to our situation, for Zim is both of our enemies."

"My proposition is that we team up so we can achieve our common goal, which is to get rid of Zim in any way and in _all ways possible_. We'll let fate decide what happens afterwards. Until then, accomplices?" She offered, extending her hand towards mine.

_Get rid of Zim? It sounds almost too good to be true. But then again, it's best to remain on her good side._

"Accomplices." I agreed, accepting and shaking her hand.

Shortly thereafter, Tak left my room through the same way she came in.

I retreated underneath the dark covers of my bed, feeling shivers lightly caress my spine and adrenaline rush through my veins at the thought of the compromise at hand, and what was soon to come.

_Your days are numbered now, Zim,_ I thought as I turned over, my figure facing the windows. _That's a guarantee._

The next day went along smoothly, the aftermaths of the evening before making me even more aware of my surroundings, to the point where I'd jump a miniscule amount when someone would speak to me.

"You're weirder than usual, Dib. If that's even possible." Gaz retorted snarkily while sitting beside me during lunch time, eating her pizza without even looking up from her Game Slave 5.

"I'm just a bit excited, that's all." I clarified with an all-knowing smile, my brown eyes trailing to the form of the unsuspecting alien sitting not far from me, who was currently gagging after eating the mashed potatoes served in the cafeteria.

"What you could have to be excited about is beyond me." She shrugged, taking a bite from her pizza slice, my smile somehow becoming bigger.

"You'll see. You'll all see."

(Author's Note: DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN~! Sorry that it was short, if the characters are OOC, if something didn't make sense or whatever, I'll try making the next chapter more coherent.)


End file.
